I saw this photo by accident. I actually can't recall how I saw it in the first place. Maybe it was when I opened my Twitter account for the first time in like, a long time. [Hey, I'm 40, what an I say?] But it, and its caption, brought tears to my eyes and blew me away:

A pic I took yesterday of Christians protecting Muslims during their prayers #jan25

At first I wasn't sure that that was really what the picture was of. I wondered, could I trust this to be true? I read some more of NevineZaki's feed, and 'checked it out.' But then I thought, Does it really matter if this photo is staged or not? Isn't the beautiful thing the idea behind the caption? That one group of people would make a human chain to protect another group of people while they pray? And the answer I came up with is, No, it doesn't matter if the photo was staged, it's the message that counts: we are all G!d's people, and we need to pray.

Maybe it's a coincidence, but I watched Defiance last night. It's a great action movie (with the very talented actors, Liev Schreiber & Daniel Craig in the lead roles, [sigh]) about Eastern European Jews hiding out in the BelaRussian forests. At one point, Craig's character says, "If we should die trying to live, at least we live like human beings." The protesters in Egypt are doing something huge, just like the Bielski brothers. They are peacefully demonstrating for something they believe in and are willing to die for. It is scary to watch - scary because I fear for their safety, but also amazing, heartening, and hopeful.

This week, as Nicholas Kristof said, ‎"A quick lesson in colloquial Egyptian Arabic: Innaharda, ehna kullina Misryeen! Today, we are all Egyptians!" or in written form:

Carl Sagan Quotation

W.H. Auden Quotation

"A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish."